Olivia Summers - Yoga: A Man’s Guide: The 30 Most Powerful Yoga Poses to Sharpen Your Mind and Strengthen Your Body (Just 10 Minutes a Day!, Yoga Mastery Series)

Yoga: A Mans Guide

The 30 Most Powerful Yoga Poses to Sharpen Your Mind and Strengthen Your Body in Just 10 Minutes a Day

Olivia Summers

Copyright 2015 by Olivia Summers

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review or scholarly journal.

Disclaimer: Although the author and publisher have made every effort to ensure that the information in this book was correct at press time, the author and publisher do not assume and hereby disclaim any liability to any party for any loss, damage, or disruption caused by errors or omissions, whether such errors or omissions result from negligence, accident, or any other cause.

This book is not intended as a substitute for the medical advice of physicians. The reader should regularly consult a physician in matters relating to his/her health and particularly with respect to any symptoms that may require diagnosis or medical attention.

As a thank you for being a reader I want to give you

this exclusive and invaluable report absolutely free !

Ill reveal to you the 10 most common yoga mistakes

I see in my practiceand how YOU can avoid them!

CLICK HERE TO GET YOUR FREE REPORT!

Hey guys! Thanks for purchasing my book Yoga: A Mans Guide. My name is Olivia Summers and Im a Certified Yoga Teacher and for the duration of this book Im going to be your personal yoga coach. Be warned, though: Im a little bossy. I hope you can handle it! Haha.

Now, one thing you might be asking yourself is: What do you know about teaching yoga to men? Believe it or not, I get lots of guys in and out of my class room that are eager to learn all different forms of yoga. It is definitely no longer just for women and it actually never has beenthats just a recent belief adopted by Western culture. You gotta love gender stereotypes.

Anyway, in this book Im going to break down the ins and outs of yoga in easy-to-understand, never-boring language. Were going to cover all the basics and then some so that you can have a solid foundation for whatever direction youd like to go with your yoga workouts. Ill even give you some tips for creating your own yoga fitness routines.

In this book I use 30 Days as a guideline for getting through the poses. Keep in mind, though its just a guideline. You can spend as much time as youd like on each pose; theres no rush.

I suggest spending at least 10 minutes as youre starting point for learning each pose. Its acceptable to learn them in this time frame; however, you will gain a much better perspective of yoga just by committing to that amount of time each day.

However, if you really want to boost your practice and flexibility, I would suggest spending as many days as youd like on each pose until you feel like youve got it. For some people this might be a few days, for others it may just be the 10 minutes.

Another suggestion Id like for you to keep in mind as you move through each poseor dayis that if you really want to cut down on your learning curve and the time it takes you to go from newbie to advanced is to practice each yoga pose that youve learned up until this point.

So for example, if youre on Day 8, start your workout for the day with the poses from Day 1 all the way up until Day 8. This will keep the poses fresh in your mind and also work more parts of your body. Once you get to Day 30 youll have an entire workout at your disposal.

Again, thank you for purchasing my book and I hope that it helps you to have a better understanding of what yoga is (and what its not ) and how it can fit into your life.

P.S. Did you get your FREE Thank You Gift? If not simply to get it now!

Unlike most yoga books were not going to go over the history of yoga and all its many traditions. I respect the culture of yoga and I think its important, but for the sake of brevity and simplicity were going to get right to the heart of things.

If you are interested in learning more about the philosophies of yoga or its history, feel free to check out some of my other books on the subject by clicking here.

There are lots of common misconceptions about yogaespecially when it comes to men practicing itso lets get those out of the way first.

For starters yoga is not a religion or a cult . Yes, there are plenty of instructors (myself included), that lead chants for spiritual purposes, burn incense or even speak of prana (life force) and chakras (energy centers in the body). But this stuff shouldnt scare you away from practicing yoga!

One of the things that I love about yoga is that its something different for every single person who practices itso embrace your version of it. Even if its nothing more than focusing on your poses and breathing, its nothing to sweat.

And no you dont have to be flexible. In fact, half the reason to start practicing yoga is to increase your flexibility so its perfectly okay and normal to not be able to do a super deep lunge or the splits when you first hit the mat. Just remember to take it at your own pace and listen to the signals your body is giving you.

Oh and another thing: yoga is not girly or easy, for that matter. A lot of people believe that a yoga session is just a walk in the park and is barely capable of making you break a sweat. If youve ever attempted even the easiest of yoga poses, then you know this just isnt true. Yoga is an incredible workout that has the potential to torch upward of 500 calories if youre doing something like Vinyasa Flow or PowerYogaor even Bikram.

As for yoga being a girl thing well cover that in the next section.

So unfortunately were still dealing with the whole yoga is for girls issue. Im not sure why this ever got started in the first place, considering yoga originated in India over 5,000 years ago thanks to a bunch of male gurus.

In fact, one of the most beneficial yogic texts that exists was written by Patanjaliwho was, no surprise, a man. So I can assure you, long before yoga pants were popularized and the art of yoga was sexualizedits roots were deeply grounded in masculinity.

So how can yoga still be for men, if the majority of yoga classes are overrun by the female population? The answer is simple: its for everyone. And if you dont feel comfortable going to yoga classes that are predominately occupied by females then try taking a Broga class (yoga classes specifically for males) in your area or see if your friends want to start a meet-up yoga group.

I promise, though, its not nearly as awkward as you think it will be after the first couple times going to a group class. Youll get used to it. Besides, its not just men that get nervous going to yoga classeswomen feel intimidated as well.

Another option is to do your yoga workouts at home. This is personally my favorite way to do yoga, as its much less distracting and can be personalized exactly to fit your needs and goals.

Which leads me to my next pointthe health benefits of yoga!

The health benefits of yoga are varied and seemingly endless. Im sure youve heard all about how yoga can reduce stress and increase flexibilitybut what else?

Balance With yoga youll learn to engage muscles that you arent used to having to rely on, which will in turn improve your overall stability and balance.

Endurance By practicing yoga regularly, youll also increase your performance output in other forms of physical exercise. Whether its during a heated a game of basketball or in the bedroom youll have much greater energy levels because of yoga.